


Slayage 2

by yourlibrarian



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Firefly
Genre: Academia, Gen, Nonfiction, Reviews, Work Contains Fan(s) or Fandom(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29863782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: Notes from the second U.S. Slayage conference, held at Gordon College in Georgia.
Kudos: 1
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Slayage 2

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted May 26, 2006

We missed the daily keynotes all three days due to our hotel not being that close, though we had a full schedule the first day. One of the reasons I prefer reading papers to conference presentations is that I generally retain little from the lectures, especially if they don't have handouts or Power Point slides or something else to organize the points. The first day none of the presentations we went to had this and, given the variety of points often being made, unless the papers had a central thesis it was difficult to answer my SO's question at the end, which was generally, "So, what was the point of that?"

So I have a hard time remembering from my notes how much of what I wrote came from the speakers' points themselves or from my own thoughts when I was listening to the discussion. The first one we went to was on "Representations of Blackness in BtVS" by Lynne Edwards. I suspect her forthcoming book on "The Other Sunnydale" is likely to be a good read because there were certainly interesting points raised, such as how the Scoobies mapped onto Ericsson's stages of development and how the creation of the Slayer was more of a Scapegoat story, where one person (or entity) is chosen to carry the sins of the community away rather than one of The Chosen Child, born of a virgin, etc. In the case of the First Slayer, instead of dying after the infusion of sin (or in this case, demon energy), she survived and went on to fight evil threats to her community. 

Although I didn't quite catch her point, the speaker also tied in the metaphorical rape of Buffy by the Shadowmen to her survival of the attempted rape by Spike, neither of which succeeded. She also noted the reversal of the first Slayer losing her humanity in Africa, where demon and human became fused in the Slayer, to Spike's going to Africa to regain his soul. 

I am even fuzzier on my notes about initiation, and the role of black characters in the series doing so. For example in S3 Buffy's school counselor is black, and in Normal Again, her attending physician is as well. In both cases, the characters are examining Buffy's mind, in one case giving her perspective on her relationship with Angel (a vampire), and the other on her role as the Slayer. The Shadowmen could certainly be seen in the role of initiators to the Slayers, and Spike, in taking Nikki Wood's coat (a prominent emblem in "Get It Done") is also initiated into his future role by a black character. She also discussed black vampires such as Absalom and Trick as being caught between the old and the new, thus being people who mediated this transition. Perhaps because he also serves this function, she said that Spike essentially was a black vampire (this came up when she said that there was no need for Gunn to be vamped in AtS S6 and she hated that idea as the end of the character's arc in the comics).

One last point she just touched on in passing was noting that Xander tended to have an attraction to "The Other" such as Impata, and Ashanti's character. It is an interesting idea, as he tended to have his own thing for Slayers, older women (Joyce, Ms. French), women outside his class (Cordelia) and so on. Of course one could simply say Xander was attracted to just about any woman.

Session 2

In the next session on Gender two papers were presented, the first by Chestina Turner on how women must be more than just an ordinary woman or else die in the Buffyverse (as opposed to, say, Xander, Giles, and Wesley who survive to the end of the series, never becoming more than human). Her best example was Anya's case, how she went from demon to human, to demon again, and then human at the end, dying in Chosen. It was an interesting notion to ponder given the purported feminist framework of the verse.

The second paper was by Jim Riser on the Western elements in the Buffyverse, how Sunnydale is the frontier town, Spike is the prostitute with the heart of gold, and Buffy fit the role of the western hero. There is also western terminology and metaphors used at different points, and plots such as the development of the lynch mob in "Gingerbread." The author compared this to the Oxbow Incident,where there are also three victims at the end. 

During audience questions several other points were brought up, such as how the end of the series had the hero, not riding away and restoring civilization as we know it, but leaving the town behind as a crater. There was apparently a town burned at the end in a Clint Eastwood film (forget the name). Another audience member brought up how another theme in Westerns is a suspicion of Eastern things, which was reflected in the verse by the perspective developed on the Watcher's Council, who are overly organized and ineffective.

Session 3

Lorna Jowett did a presentation which appears in part in both her book on Sex and the Slayer and also coming up in the book Geek Chic. The overall theme was the representation of gender and science in both BtVS and AtS. One of the most interesting points in this apparently came from an article by Calvert in Slayage, discussing cyborg bodies in the Buffyverse. The idea was that Willow's use and misuse of magic comes in part from her basing her magical understanding and use from her own technological background. Unlike Tara's understanding of magic (and relative lack of technological use, see her discussion with Anya in "I Was Made to Love You"), Willow uses magic to control and organize, ideas springing from the use of technology, rather the more holistic and connected view of magic that is later emphasized in S7.

Session 4

The first paper by Kevin Durand discussed why Caleb was such an obvious and seemingly clumsy villain in S7, a caricature of institutionalized misogyny. His thesis was that Caleb was a lens with which to review the entire series not as a struggle between good and evil, but an internecine battle among different groups of patriarchal society, the main protagonists being the Watchers' Council. He discussed how the Shadowmen's attempted infusion of Buffy was a mirror of the First's merger with Caleb, Caleb and the Slayer merely being the different tools of two groups struggling for power. 

I thought this was an interesting way to present things but the paper never went farther to discuss whether the Powers that Be and the First Evil are not on opposite sides either. It also made me wonder about how no one (that I've seen) has really explored what makes a Potential a Potential. I've thought since S7 that the whole transfer of the demon when vampires sire new vampires is much the same as the way the demon power transfers from one Slayer to the next. The only question is how does the demon power know where to go?

The second paper by Monique Hyman dealt with women's use of space on Firefly. The author pointed out how Kaylee and Inara each have their own spaces on the ship which are largely their own and, in the case of Inara, clearly delineated even after her departure (she leaves behind her trunk, and quickly takes over the shuttle again upon her return). Zoe, who lives more of the male life, shares all her space, public and private on the ship. River colonizes all space, however, going so far as to claim that she is the ship in "Objects in Space." Her mind, invaded by the Alliance, is only "rented" however, and she eventually reclaims it. 

I'd argue that the whole space issue may change post-Serenity however, as River has reclaimed herself and apparently the ship's bridge, whereas Zoe now will have her own space. 

**Day Two**

The second day we didn't head in until the afternoon sessions, which in my case began with the session on Fan Fiction. The first presenter, whose paper on Spangel had me the most interested, had cancelled out. There was also a paper presented on Buffy/Giles fic by Katia McClain, discussing the various spaces online for the 'ship and the way the relationship is treated in most B/G fic. There was also a presentation on Joanne Staudacher's project of writing a sonnet for each Buffy episode. She discussed this as a way of dealing with the series in a way that fit in with other creative fan projects such as fic, vids and crafts. A lot of the talk could be summed up with "writing sonnets is hard and time consuming." She did read a few of them but when asked later if these will be available online, she said she hoped to get them published in a literary journal. 

At the end of the two presentations a B/G vid from last year's conference set to "This Woman's Work" was played. What it made me realize is that it's often jarring (to me at least) to see a vid I've really enjoyed redone with a different pairing (or show even). I thought that Foomatic's Willow/Tara vid to this was much better, if for no other reason than the theme of the song was so much more fitting to their story and became quite touching when the two parts tied together. 

The second session had 2 papers on OMWF. The first by Cynthia Masson was about rhetorical questions and how they obscured more than revealed truth. In previous articles the musical numbers were represented to function as the soliloquy does in theater, allowing the audience to know the inner truth of the character. This paper disagreed with that position saying that there were certain truths revealed in the songs, but the rhetorical questions obscure the deeper emotional questions. In discussing Buffy's failure to hear what she didn't want to confront (her own death wish, Giles' entire "Standing in the Way"), Xander and Anya's constant failure of communication, never answering one another's questions, Tara's song (which was changed from "Am I Under Your Spell"), and Dawn's question only when she was alone about whether anyone cared, the characters asked questions that they subconsciously did not want answered. Spike's question is the most obvious, as "why won't you let me rest in peace" seems to reveal a truth that isn't his actual emotional desire. It also addresses the big series question of why didn't Buffy ever kill Spike, given that it was her role and would have been fairly simple post-chip. 

Hopefully this paper will get published soon as it held together very well, concluding with Fred and Angel in "Shiny Happy People" discussing how no one questions Jasmine. The second paper by Michelle Dvoskin discussed how OMWF utilized musical theater elements to enhance the queer aspects of the series, specifically with the lesbian experience in "Under Your Spell." The discussion afterwards focused a lot on who could hear what during the musical and what it (and the blocking of the episode) revealed.

The third session was on vampires and werewolves. The first paper by Peggy Davis dealt with Stoker and Buffy's use of vampires to reveal information about inner darkness in women and how desire equals power. The episode with Dracula begins the second arc of the series, from the battle without to the battle within. An interesting point made was how at the end of Dracula, Mina has accepted her role as wife and mother and has a child named after all the men who fought Dracula. Although the speaker didn't bring this up, this seemed paralleled in Buffy. After her encounter with Dracula, we first see Buffy with Dawn, and she takes on the maternal role by necessity in S5, culminating in the ultimate sacrifice for her sister/child.

The second paper by Hillary Brown focused on how the Oz storyline tied in with traditional and modern werewolf mythology, specifically as the avenging werewolf on the unfaithful lover. Part of being in a relationship is ceding control to trust the partner. Oz's greatest fear is loss of control, and there are different signs that Oz has not learned to trust Willow after her earlier betrayal with Xander, both in the acts within the Wishverse as well as his attack on her in "The Zeppo." 

The last paper by Devon Bryce focused on the changes to the vampire in the Buffyverse which ranged from the traditional to the modern. One example is the reaction of the vampires to the cross. It fills the Master with dread, Dracula turns away from it, Angel accepts its effect in his kiss with Buffy although he usually avoids it for its physical effects, and Spike handles one simply by wearing gloves and takes one on as a weapon in Destiny. 

One thing that's certainly pretty challenging about a conference like this is that, although it should fall under the general heading of media studies or communication, and I think most of the presentations do fit that, it's pretty interdisciplinary. So a lot of it starts getting jargony rather quickly. It also tends to assume a pretty good knowledge of canon. Honestly though, when it comes to meta I think the stuff I read on LJ is often more interesting than what I heard there, the only difference being that it isn't tied to theory and disciplinary frameworks (for the most part). Of course that's probably also because if I'm on LJ I'm using my limited time to read stuff I'm already intrigued by! The other thing is that at least five of the sessions we went to didn't have one of the speakers there so one could say there were a fair number of dead links.

The vid night had 15 vids focusing on Firefly and Angel, about half of which I'd already seen such as "Hand That Feeds", "Passive", "Roseability", "Magic Carpet Ride", "Mr. Brightside" and it concluded with "Two Words." At the moment I can only recall "Cannonball" as being a new one (to me). The audience started rather small and about half the group trickled in late. The problem is that by the time the break came (when they were raffling off copies of the first half DVD), it was almost 10 PM and about half the group had to catch their bus back to the hotels. So they all missed the showing of "Scooby Road". I was sorry they didn't start the show at least half an hour earlier as I'd have really loved to see the group reactions to it especially at "Polythene Pam" and "You Never Give Me Your Money." The one that was most enthusiastically received in the first half of the show was the Firefly vid "Money for Nothing." 

**Day 3**

We missed the keynote again, which was too bad as it was on Spike, Angel and the Buddy Genre but I'm hoping the discussion was part of Stacey Abbott's book. Since we had to pack and check out we also were a bit late to the next session, which is a real shame as we both enjoyed it a lot. The first paper, by Reginald Abbott was on "The Xander Harris Legacy of Masculine (Mis)Identity in BtVS." This was the one I really wanted to hear and what we caught of it lived up to my hopes. When we came in he was discussing the role of uniforms for Xander in the series, for example, what happened every time he wore a tux, and how Xander was forever "putting on" different masculine roles. For example, with Xander's soldier knowledge the everyday Xander served as a container for masculinity on demand, in the form of his soldier persona -- whereas Buffy was never called on to use any skills she might have retained as the aristocratic lady (for example, in S4, it is Joyce, not Buffy who sews and alters her next Halloween costume). Abbott also looked at the clips used to represent Xander's character in the different opening credits over the years, and how they focused on his body as a way of defining the character.

The second paper was on Faith's arc as the evil dead lesbian cliche, only in this case, one who doesn't die but who is instead reconciled to heterosexuality. The idea was that Angel, the most masculine character in the series, is the guider of her "reform" in prison, and when she emerges she takes on a more clearly heterosexual role. In the discussion afterwards there were some modifications to this idea, such as that Faith is essentially a pushy bottom, who is continually trying to get someone to top her and match her in her kink orientation. I found the paper a pretty interesting reading of Faith's experiences and representations, especially as it pertained to why the knife kept reappearing in the shared dreams with Buffy.

The last paper was on Anya's role as the Fool in BtVS, noting at the end that in Shakespeare the Fool departs to be replaced by Cordelia, whereas on the show this was reversed. The paper was well laid out and presented and was a great look at Anya. There was a lot of back and forth in the discussion afterwards as well. We definitely thought this was the best session we had attended.

After lunch I went to the session on Race and Class. The first by Agnes Curry was on the official displacement of Indians in Joss' Western by the Reavers, however there were many codings showing they were just that. Much of the discussion focused on stereotypical schema of other cultures and how the media perpetuates these. Probably because the chair of the session didn't appear, the presentation ran rather long.

The second paper was by Elspeth Kydd on "Class Performance in BtVS" and dealt largely with the use of accents by Spike and Angel in BtVS and AtS. It dealt rather more with the European/American old world/modern divide than with issues of class in the show, and tied Angel's transition to modern upper-middle class American, at least in terms of accent, style, transportation -- passing essentially -- whereas Spike is more fixed in his identity. (Although she didn't mention this, it is a rather interesting thesis given Spike and Angel's first encounter with one another on the show). This presentation did use a Power Point and pretty effectively. In her final slide she mentioned that class discussions are also rather difficult for the following (as well as other) reasons:

Performative Nature  
Concealed behind other identities  
Manifests in culturally specific forms  
Displacement of discussion of material conditions of class onto other issues

The last one was Nicole McClure's paper on Irish Otherness and Hybridity in Dracula and Angel. One of her points was that Angel is often challenged in his role as champion by English characters in the show such as Wesley and Spike. In comparing Liam's behavior towards Wesley in "Spin the Bottle" which is more traditionally Irish, she argues that Spike allows Angel to move past early Irish stereotypes, because he embodies many of these behaviors himself, to become a more mainstream Irish-American. She then looked at Doyle in "Hero" and the discussion of half-breeds, and how Dracula embodied racial discussions.

The last session we went to was on Myth and focused on Buffy's role. One of the presenters had dropped out, so the Chair told a story as we waited for everyone to finish filing in for the session. She had just gone from the conference to a wedding the night before, and the groom announced during his time at her table that the two of them were writing a paper on Buffy together. Someone scoffed at the idea of writing academically about a "silly" show, but then all the men at the table began asking her questions about the paper and shows while the women rolled their eyes. I couldn't help thinking of Kaylee's experience at the ball. 

The first paper was by Erin Hanna on "BtVS as Myth", which basically traced Buffy's path through the series as the hero's journey using Campbell's stages of the myth. She argued that the traditional structure made it accessible to mass audiences and the polysemic meaning of the text (the various subtextual readings) allowed for a wider and deeper reach. She had a particularly interesting example, using the Gentlement in "Hush" as representations of the bourgeoisie, who naturalize history through myth, and the constant emphasis of the collective within the series as a countering political argument. She had a great concluding line, asking if viewers would heed some of the implicit calls to action within the show or allow Buffy to slay our demons for us so that we don't have to. It was a well laid out discussion and set out strong connections. 

The session concluded with Allison Henney's "The Psychic Development of the Feminine" which built on the first presentation to discuss metaphor and was, the speaker noted, born out of her frustration with her students' inability to grasp metaphor. She suggested that the BtVS series itself was like the Slayer scythe, being handed out to the audience for them to use for their own stories. In the discussion afterwards some of the questions focused on why Campbell is so often used for discussion, particularly since the academic validity of his analysis is pretty poor. It is presented as universal, whereas it is really very Western oriented and doesn't fit well with myths of other cultures. There was then some discussion of the Adam storyline and how this might be seen as a creation myth. The final part was discussion about the future. Will Buffy be both enduring and flexible enough for future generations to reinterpret it to reflect future societal concerns and entities? And that finally ended with discussion of converting other people and how knowledge of the series is spreading person to person and how that recreates oral tradition.


End file.
